Work Time is a sociological overview of a complex web of relations that shapes much of our experience of work and life yet often goes without critical examination.
Cynthia Negrey examines work time past and present, exploring structural economic change and the gender division of labor to ask: what are the historical, cultural, public policy, and business sources of current work-time practices? Topics addressed include work-time reduction in the US culminating in the 40-hour statute of 1938, recent trends in annual and weekly hours, overtime, part-time work, temporary employment, work-family integration, and international comparisons. She focuses on the US in a global context and explores how a new political economy of work time is taking shape.
This book brings together existing knowledge from sociology, anthropology, history, labor economics, and family studies to answer its central question and will change the way upper-level students think about the time we devote to work.
About the Author
Cynthia L. Negrey is Associate Professor of Sociology at the University of Louisville.
Features
An engaging sociological overview of the complex web of relations that shapes our experience of work and life.
Focuses on an area that has previously not been explored adequately: what are the social causes and consequences of the accepted norms of working hours?
Covers topics such as recent trends in annual and weekly hours, overtime, part-time work, temporary employment, and work-family integration.
Brings together knowledge from sociology, anthropology, history, labour economics, and family studies, as well as internationally comparative material.
